In this Thursday, June 27, 2013 photo, a bionic ear rests in a petri dish, in Princeton, N.J. Scientists at Princeton University have created an ear with an off-the-shelf 3-D printer that can "hear" radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability. The researchers used 3-D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a bionic ear.Mel Evans / AP

What if cartilage could be made to repair itself without invasive procedures to knee or hip joints? Internal organs could be printed on a 3D printer? Or science found a way to spin engineered tissue into human skin like textiles on a loom?

It may sound like program notes for a science fiction film festival, but no, these topics are part of the 10th World Biomaterials Congress underway in Montreal this week.

Biomaterial is anything that has been designed to come into contact with an injured or diseased part of the human body. Breast implants, contact lenses, catheters, orthopedic implants, heart valves, pacers, and stents that keep arteries open — biomaterials are already in wide use in medicine and dentistry.

The field took off after the Second World War, said event president and coordinator Dr. Paul Santerre, professor of biomaterials at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering,

“Surgeons got very creative in creating substitute material for mechanical function in injured soldiers,” Santerre said in an interview from the Palais des Congrès.

As of Wednesday, nearly 4,000 scientists, clinicians and researchers from 60 countries are expected to attend about 3,300 presentations on the latest findings and technologies in the field of biomaterials and medicine.

Huge advances in science and engineering, coupled with decades of studies in how the body reacts to implants of foreign materials — plastics, polymers, ceramics and metals — has led to huge improvements in the “interface” between implantable devices and the body’s immune system, Santerre said.

Themes include, for example, inventions designed to respond to electrical signals and make muscles twitch so that a paraplegic can move an artificial limb or a paralyzed hand; 3-D manufacturing to generate an ear, foot or other organ out of plastics; harnessing nanotechnology to deliver drugs with precision to cancerous tissue while sparing healthy cells, and regenerative technology where biomaterial is engineered to repair, heal or help grow bone, cartilage, skin and blood vessels.

“We can regenerate whole blood vessels. We’re still working on arteries but it’s a matter of time,” Santerre said Monday. “There’s been a shift in the field to making materials that can intervene early on. We want to get new materials in place before a disease gets chronic.”

Held every four years at an international site, the congress draws the best in the world and Canada is a powerhouse in the field as well as at this conference, Santerre said, with more than 400 Canadian delegates participating.

One group from Montreal’s École Polytechnique, led by Michael Buschmann, Canada research chair in cartilage tissue engineering, is a world leader in the use of hydrogel, a polymer that can look and feel like tendons, Santerre said. Maryam Tabrizian of McGill University’s department of biomedical engineering focuses on regenerative medicine, nanomedicine and lab-on-a-chip computing platforms.

Lab-on-a-chip devices contain surfaces with biomaterials that can detect infection quickly in a drop of blood, explained Santerre. “It creates points of care diagnostics and screenings. You can carry it in your hand. You can be in the desert in the middle of Africa, stick the device into a chip, send it to a centre and get a diagnosis – really powerful stuff.”

For the first time in the event’s history, the lead keynote speaker is a woman. Regenerative medicine expert Fiona Watt of King’s College London will speak on manipulating stem cells with biomaterials to mimic normal skin architecture and stimulate growth, for example in burn patients needing skin grafts.

Several sessions will run concurrently. There will be technical workshops on tissue engineering, biomaterials for 3D printing, injectables for cell therapy, building scaffolds to grow tissue on, and the future of transplanting artificial pancreas devices. One speaker is expected to talk about injectable materials to smooth face wrinkles.

Biomaterials are used in life-saving therapies and cosmetic surgery, Santerre said. One Toronto group has developed an implantable biomaterial for women with breast cancer who have had tumours removed with a lumpectomy, leaving the breast misshapen. The biomaterial retains the woman’s original shape and promotes growth of healthy tissue within 36 weeks. So far, the technology has only been used in animal models.

The biomaterials market is supposed to reach $130 billion U.S. within four years, Santerre added.

The Montreal conference, expected to be the largest gathering of biomaterial scientists to date, continues until Sunday.

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